Speakers

Paul is a former primary school leader. At Secure Schools, he supports schools in understanding the importance of culture and ethics in developing cyber resilience.

Workshops presented by Paul Armstrong

• Mitigating the impact of a cyber-attack with incident response planning

Duncan is an expert in performance data and assessment. He currently provides consultancy support to CST’s Data Leaders Community while working part time for the Endeavour Learning Trust and supporting other schools and trusts around performance data and assessment. He previously served as Deputy Director of Policy at ASCL and as a consultant at Capita.

Having qualified as a teacher in the early 2000s, he went on to hold several roles in schools, before moving into a product role. Nic is incredibly passionate about great technology in education and empowering schools with data to drive pupil progress. With the belief that technology helps education professionals to truly do more, understand data better and feel supported. Nic has used his passion to support the development of software fit for schools and trusts of today.

Workshops presented by Nic Clark

• Democratising data access: Driving improvements through data-led decisions

Calum is the Executive Director for Research and Best Practice. He joined from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, where he focused on evaluations of complex interventions in health, disability-inclusion and education. Calum also spent a year at the Education Endowment Foundation and remains a member of its Evaluation Advisory Group. 

Peter is a highly experienced educationalist with 19 years of experience across a range of settings. Peter has both substantial trust and academy leadership experience with a focus on data systems, assessment, performance, raising achievement and examinations. Peter is experienced working across the education phases from EYFS to post-16 and is currently the Director of Trust Performance for E-Act. Peter is a passionate advocate that data processes should provide high quality and timely information to practitioners in an easy to interpret format so that they can inform evidence-based decision making and can be used to maximise student experiences.

Peter is currently leading the development and implementation of a trust wide KS3 assessment system at E-Act with the CAB, LAB and PAB leads at E-Act.

Workshops presented by Peter Davies

• Assessing creative and performance subjects, at scale: it is possible!

Shaun is the Director of Data for the National Institute of Teaching and has over 15 years’ experience working in education. He has previously held roles as Director of Systems and Data and Head of Digital Resources and Delivery within North East multi academy trust’s, leading on the strategic implementation of digital and data infrastructure.

Harriet brings 25 years of commercial experience and 10 years of working with public sector clients to her role as Head of Partnerships at Juniper Education. Her deep understanding of the challenges faced by MATs and her problem-solving approach make her a valuable partner in driving continuous improvement in the education sector. Harriet is committed to optimizing efficiencies in schools, giving teachers more time to teach, and ensuring value for money in the solutions she offers. She believes in leveraging smart technology, data, and human expertise to drive positive outcomes for teachers, students, and the overall education system

Workshops presented by Harriet Gill

• Reimagining edtech fundamentals

Sam Gray is GAT’s Trust Data Manager charged with analysing assessment, attendance and exclusions data for the whole Trust. Sam has been with the Trust since 2018 and has nearly 20 years of experience in the field of educational administration with the last 12 years being dedicated to data management. Sam has been a proficient user of the SIMS database for 20 years and also has 11 years’ experience of using SISRA for secondary data analysis.

Andrew Hill has worked for over 20 years in the school sector to help improve educational outcomes. With a background in teaching, Andrew has worked in schools, local authorities and the Department for Education. He also has commercial experience of running his own school training business.

As Head of Partnerships at FFT, Andrew now works directly with trusts and schools, ensuring that they can make the best use of FFT’s range of data systems and literacy programmes.

Don is currently Head of Information and Insights at Ormiston Academies Trust, where its pupil demographic allows him to realise his passion for making a difference for those with some of the hardest starts to life. He is leading a cultural change for data in OAT, transitioning from its production and satisfying unchallenged orthodoxies to its efficient and intelligent use. By focusing on prioritised frameworks, sharing what works best and enabling local agency, his team now delivers innovative insights across all business functions that support evidenced improvement and increase assurance about the quality of education its 34,000 students receive.

Gary has worked in secondary education for over 13 years, with the last four being part of the central team at Consilium Academies leading the data & exams team across nine schools and serving 6,500 students. With a background in computer science and software engineering, Gary is passionate about using modern and innovative approaches to provide actionable insights to students, parents, teachers, and leaders at all levels across the trust. Having grown up in an ex-mining town on the coast of Northeast England, Gary is particularly invested in maximising the life chances of disadvantaged students.

Workshops presented by Gary Laverick

• Improving assessment at KS2 and KS3

After having extensive experience in the education sector spanning the past 25 years, Allan has worked closely with senior colleagues in local authorities and school trusts. As a senior school leader for 11 years, he worked as a head in both Hertfordshire and Norfolk schools that focused on school improvement.

Workshops presented by Allan Lowe

• Improving assessment at KS2 and KS3

Tina has been involved in data in some form for all of her career whether it’s navigating the challenges of teaching mathematics and statistics while overseeing data functions in the sixth form college sector, or currently providing strategic oversight of IT, digital and data at the Potteries Educational Trust.

With more than 30 years experience in the education sector, Tina brings a wealth of expertise in system management, change implementation and project development.

More recently she has also been lead of the DfE funded 'Data Leaders Collective' project which aims to support the development of data capability across the education sector.

Workshops presented by Tina Manning

• DfE Building capacity project – Exploring the roadmap for the development of the data professional in education

As a leader in educational data, Laura has more than 12 years of experience in developing and implementing data-driven solutions that support strategic goals, business decisions and school improvement. She currently leads the Data department and oversees the Governance & Compliance and Marketing & Publicity functions, ensuring cross-departmental collaboration and high-quality delivery of products and services.

She is a Chartered Manager and Level 7 qualified, having completed the Strategic Leadership Diploma from the Chartered Management Institute in 2021.

Laura leads data community events and champions collaboration to enhance products and performance. She is passionate about data literacy, innovation and the implementation and delivery of strategies ensuring successful and sustained impact, with the aim of improving the life chances of future generations.

Workshops presented by Laura Mellis

• Improving assessment at KS2 and KS3

Workshops presented by Matt Morris

• Shaping the narrative: Using data dashboards to track trust growth and improvement capacity

Workshops presented by Emma Parkins

• Democratising data access: Driving improvements through data-led decisions

Steve Rollett is Deputy Chief Executive of the Confederation of School Trusts (CST), the national organisation and sector body for school trusts in England. Before joining CST, he was Curriculum and Inspection Specialist for the Association of School and College Leaders. Steve has sat on a range of advisory bodies, including Ofsted’s curriculum advisory group. Most recently he has supported Oak National Academy and the Department for Education’s remote learning advisory group. Originally trained as a history teacher, Steve was a vice principal of one of England’s most improved secondary schools before moving into a career in education policy.

As a Trust Partnership Manager at Juniper Education, I work with our academy trust customers and directly with MAT leadership teams. I have been working in education technology for the last 5 years and as an individual, I am motivated by solving problems in education. In my current role, I enjoy helping Trusts to find best in class solutions and realise centralisation efficiencies allowing for more time and money to be directed towards the classroom.

Workshops presented by Tom Stephenson

• Reimagining edtech fundamentals

Ian is a former school IT manager who wants to help as many schools as possible with cyber security.

Workshops presented by Ian Stockbridge

• Mitigating the impact of a cyber-attack with incident response planning

Workshops presented by Lauren Thorpe

• Building new data and AI capability in trusts: how collaborating and an open source approach can help us

Luke is the Digital Services Manager at the Voyage Education Partnership. He has successfully led the trust on a transformative journey, inheriting a network that faced a major cybersecurity incident and steering it towards becoming a resilient and trusted digital ecosystem, culminating in the achievement of Cyber Essentials certification. With the support of trust leadership, his efforts have not only enhanced security but also confidence among users and leadership to invest in edtech.

Workshops presented by Luke Vere

• Mitigating the impact of a cyber-attack with incident response planning

Rob is an experienced data leader who has worked in a variety of education settings across the further education, higher education and secondary sectors in schools, colleges and trusts. More recently, he has worked alongside Tina Manning as part of the DfE funded 'Data Leaders Collective' project which aims to support the development of data capability across the education sector. Rob regularly posts data related articles and content on social media under the pseudonym Rob the data geek: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rob-wall-datageek/

Workshops presented by Rob Wall

• DfE Building capacity project – Exploring the roadmap for the development of the data professional in education

James is the CEO and Co-founder of Arbor Education, the cloud-based MIS that transforms the way schools and trusts work for the better. More primary, secondary and special schools choose Arbor when switching from SIMS than all other MIS systems combined, with over 6,000 schools and 500 trusts having made the move to date.

As data professional and PhD candidate in the field of machine learning and artificial intelligence in Education, Matthew has helped education institutions leverage value from their investments in technology over many years. Through his work with Microsoft in the UK and internationally, Matthew understands that schooling systems are often data rich but information poor. Matthew has founded companies specifically addressing how technology can support more effective decision making at all levels to improve outcomes, but also importantly in today’s economic climate to be able to ‘do more, with less’.

Matthew is founder and CEO of Open Education AI, a not for profit community interest company supporting all education organisations across the public and private sectors in the UK and internationally. As a Microsoft Partner he has led engagements with education ministries in Malta, Russia and Kazakhstan, has been a local leader of governance and chair in Surrey and has a prior background of 25 years in technology applications and consulting in Europe and the US.

Workshops presented by Matt Woodruff

• Building new data and AI capability in trusts: how collaborating and an open source approach can help us